Other Children's Literature

[psychic_serpent]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "derannimer" 
<susannahlm at y...> wrote:
> Also E. Nesbit -- I remember finishing _The Railway Children_ for 
> the first time and missing it so much that I started rereading it 
> right away, and a book called _Gone-Away Lake_, which I haven't 
> reread in ever so, so I don't know if I can still recommend 
> it. And the three _Freaky Friday_ books. And _Anne of Green 
> Gables_, of course. And things with lots of horses in them. And 
> Sherlock Holmes.

I adored Gone-Away Lake, as well as the sequel.  Gone-Away Lake also 
had stuff in it about alchemy and the Philosopher's Stone.  Once upon 
a time, an American publisher didn't think this was beyond the ken of 
American kids. ;)  I also liked the fact that the Gone-Away books 
were illustrated by Beth and Joe Krush, who also illustrated all of 
the books about the Borrowers, which I reread until they were falling 
apart.  In fact, I went out of my way a lot of the time to look for 
books specifically illustrated by the Krushes, and I usually found 
the stories they chose to illustrate to be top notch!  It was a 
technique that never failed me when I was looking for new reading 
material and I'd run out of things written by my favorite (known) 
authors.  I did the same thing with books illustrated by Erik 
Blegvad.  Loved his work.

I didn't read the Anne books until I was an adult, actually, so I 
liked them well enough, but I was never really addicted to them like 
some girls I knew.  There were three Freaky Friday books?  I 
obviously missed something.  
 
> Agatha Christie, from the age of about ten to the time I discovered 
> Lord Peter Whimsey. Possibly my ideal man.

I did like kid detective books, although I wasn't especially fond of 
Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys. Everything always seemed too neat and 
easy for them.  And I have to sort of turn my brain off to tolerate 
reading the Boxcar Children to my daughter.  And brush my teeth a lot 
afterward, as the BC books are SO sweet. ;)

I preferred mysteries such as E.L. Konigsberg's, an author someone 
else mentioned who was/is absolutely brilliant and NEVER condescended 
to kids.  I also loved Kin Platt's mysteries about a boy on Long 
Island who had a bulldog named "Sinbad" but they're out of print and 
very hard to find now.  I still reread all of Jane Langton's books 
about the Hall family (coincidentally, illustrated by the wonderful 
Erik Blegvad), with the wacky uncle who reminds me so of Arthur 
Weasley, except that he's nuts about the Transcendentalists 
(especially Emerson and Thoreau) instead of plugs. <g>
 
> Derannimer, who thinks she would have missed a lot of stuff in 
> Harry Potter if she had read it when she was much younger. For one 
> thing, she doubts she'd be half so fond of Severus Snape.

I know what you mean; my kids absolutely LOATHE Snape.  I've reminded 
them that technically he's one of the good guys, but they still can't 
stand him.  Now that we've had Umbridge, however, they've 
acknowledged that it's possible for a teacher to be worse than him.  
Look what it took!

--Barb

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